New Heathrow services and the timing of Easter have helped Flybe to increase its quarterly passenger revenue by 11.7% to £174m, the airline reported last week. The regional carrier launched domestic routes from the London hub at the end of March.

In celebration of its 80 years of service in Denver, United Airlines last week said it was launching a daily non-stop seasonal service between Denver International Airport (DEN) and Heathrow next year.

Last week’s announcement, reported elsewhere in this issue, by the Air France-KLM Group, Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic that they were expanding their strategic partnership was at pains to stress Virgin Atlantic would retain its independence as a UK airline with a UK operating certificate, and would continue to fly under the Virgin brand.

The 100th Airbus A350 XWB, claimed by the manufacturer to be the world’s most modern wide-body, has been handed to its new owner, China Airlines, just 30 months after the first delivery in December 2014.

“Good progress” was reported by Heathrow last week in attempts to meet the challenge set by the government to finance the £18.6bn third-runway expansion at the airport without increasing charges to passengers.

Hard on the heels of increasing its service between Heathrow Terminal 4 and Guangzhou to twice daily, Asia's largest airline, China Southern Airlines, has launched a new route to the Malaysian archipelago of Langkawi.

A widely-forecast agreement for Johannesburg-based carrier SA Airlink to provide scheduled air services to St Helena in the South Atlantic was signed by the company and the St Helena government (SHG) last week. A start date has yet to be announced.

A boom in travel between Australia and Japan has led Qantas to plan to launch new direct seasonal flights between Sydney and Osaka’s Kansai International Airport from 14 December until 24 March next year.

As easyJet forges ahead with its post-Brexit plans (see story this issue), Ryanair has said it has put “contingency plans” in place to deal with the potential impact on its operations of leaving the EU.

Boeing has been given further impetus for its UK growth plans after council planning officers on Friday approved a multi-million pound plan for its first manufacturing plant in Britain at Sheffield Business Park.

Control of Virgin Atlantic changed hands last week after the carrier, the Air France-KLM Group and Delta Air Lines said they were expanding their strategic partnership in a move widely seen as an attempt to beat off increasing competition.

In Part 2 of the saga of his latest adventure (Pt 1 appeared in BTN last week - The Wizz Air way to Israel), aviation fan Mike Bartlett, known as the Mad Monk and holder of a Guinness World Record for number of airlines flown (278), recounts how his return journey on Wizz Air’s inaugural between Luton and Tel Aviv did not go exactly to plan

Crew working Lufthansa flight LH543 from Bogota – Frankfurt faced an extra task on Wednesday when a baby was born on board 39,000ft above the Atlantic. Place of birth: 49degN, 21degW (Lufthansa is thorough with its facts). His name is Nikolai and he and the mother, from Bulgaria, are fine.

Phase one of a three-month Delta Air Lines test programme designed to improve gate use and streamline the boarding process for passengers in T Concourse at Atlanta’s Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport took off last week.

An “overall satisfaction” score of 97% in the latest National Rail Passenger Survey has lifted Heathrow Express to the position of the UK’s joint top railway performer. The score is the train operator’s best to date.

A starting date of 18 December has been confirmed by Hong Kong Airlines for new direct flights between Hong Kong and Los Angeles in a further expansion of the carrier’s network in North America. The route will be served by Airbus A350 aircraft.

A new A2 service between London and Luton Airport from coach operator National Express hit the road last week, adding another 35 daily departures, or 1,600 extra seats a day, straight to the airport terminal.

The fast pace of growth and expansion at Qatar Airways looks set to continue into next year with the airline last week announcing the launch of service to Canberra, its fifth Australian destination, from February.

Details have emerged of the new Vienna-based European operation planned by easyJet (BTN 17 July) in a week when the airline also announced a major recruitment drive for cabin crew with most set to be based at Gatwick.